Should I Switch from Telus to Shaw for Better Internet?

I currently live in Red Deer, Alberta. I was planning on switching from Telus to Shaw since Shaw offers faster broadband deals, but from what I've experienced before. I had problems when it came to having their promised mbps consistant and would never come close to the promised mbps I was paying for. I know that Telus does not have an issue with this. Right now I am getting a solid 25mbps download, 2.80 upload, and 125 ms for ping witch is the highest Telus can go, but I would like to upgrade to Broadband 100 or Broadband 250 but if i do, will I get somewhat close to what I'm paying for, or will this speed consistantcy be a huge issue, again? Is Broadband 100 or Broadband 250 available in my area?

So it really matters on how many people have Shaw in my neighborhood. If this is correct, then I should have no problem if you are in Calgary which is more populated than Red Deer, and you still get really good speeds.

I guesss I'll try getting Broadband 100 or Broadband 250 and see how well it works out.

If your neighbourhood has a saturation issue, it dosen't matter what speed package you have. At peak times your speed will still be the same. I had the bb50 service and am now on bb100 and while the speeds were both near advertised speed at non-peak times, they are both unusable during the hrs of 5:30pm until at least 1:00am.

Oh, that's why I'm hesitating on swing from Telus, Because they keep very consistant speeds at what they say. I'm a big gamer also. That's why I was thinking of upgrading but I'll give Shaw a go. See how it works out.

Get Shaw to set you up with an internet connection only, try the speeds for a couple days, running Shaw and Telus, base your decision off that.

It isn't the size of the city, it is your neighborhood as Shaw has them setup (node), if there are a lot of heavy internet users, then you may have slower speeds until they get the node split into smaller ones.

Ok will do tomorrow. I'll test both and see if it works out. I just found out that they only have Broadband 100 here. I asked Shaw and they said that the lowest speed that it will go around my neighborhood is 80, so that works out for me.

I did quite a few tests on wireless and it would range between 8-37mbps. I did a couple more on wired and got pretty much the same thing. I have not done a system virus scan. I am using my own Cisco wifi modem, the new, smaller one.

Yup, I know. My ping and jitter is higher with Shaw also so I'll be probably stay with Telus if this keeps up for the next few days. I know that Telus has fibre optics so that could also be a reason why I'm getting better results with Telus. I personally think that they should take out the "Up To..." and actually range it. If they don't and the slow speeds problem persists, then they will lose customers. Everyone that I personally know that has switched from Shaw was because of that reason.

1 gbps is the speed at which the network card is connected to whatever is at the other end of the wire. In this case a gigabit network.

I wanted to confirm if you were using another router in addition to the Shaw modem/router combo unit. If you just have the Cisco modem (DPC3825), and your computer is connected directly to that, that is the information I was looking for

Well, I did one at 5:30pm on Friday and it ranged from 2Mbps-37Mbps. Usually it's in it's 30's. Last night, I did another one at 11pm since I miss understood what you said about 11am and the highest I got was 64.44Mbps. It was getting there, but I think it should be more since 11pm isn't really a busy time. Is there a way you can check the modem's signal?